KBS AI Translation System Generated Profanity in Artemis II Livestream Subtitles
KBS's AI translation system mistranslated the aerospace term "pitch" as a profanity during its livestream of NASA's Artemis II lunar launch, generating Korean subtitles containing a derogatory slur. The broadcaster apologized and said it was implementing measures to strengthen profanity control and human oversight of AI translations.
What happened
During KBS's YouTube livestream of NASA's Artemis II launch on Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the AI translation system generated Korean subtitles that mistranslated the aerospace term 'pitch' into a derogatory term describing a woman.
The AI system misinterpreted the technical term 'pitch', used to describe a rocket's orientation adjustment, as the English expletive 'bitch' and translated it into an equivalent Korean slur. The screenshot of the mistranslation went viral on social media.
Reported impact
The incident sparked backlash on social media, with users questioning the broadcaster's professionalism and emphasizing the importance of human review of AI-generated translations.
Index analysis
Users commented that the case demonstrates why human oversight is essential in AI translation, even as the technology becomes more advanced, and that basic review should be standard practice for automated translations.
Governance controls
KBS issued a public apology and stated it had completed measures to prevent the error from recurring. The broadcaster said it was working with relevant authorities to strengthen profanity control on AI translation systems and to better identify and block offensive language in AI-generated captions.
The controversial caption was removed from the recorded livestream on KBS's YouTube channel, with 'Roger, roll, pitch' replaced by Korean phonetic form.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.